More about: The Vaccines

A decade has passed since The Vaccines released their iconic debut LP What Did You Expect from The Vaccines?, and time has treated it kindly. Whilst those iconic tracks will never leave any indie disco, the band have been quietly going from strength to strength in the album’s aftermath, strengthening their sound and flourishing within their trade.

2018’s Combat Sports was a career high, a peppy indie-pop album with cinematic intentions, with Justin Young’s songwriting at a new peak: a peak which he somehow manages to top on Back In Love City, a sprawling gem of an album that shows The Vaccines eradicating any restraints on their wild creativity. 

Love City is the fictional setting of the album’s 13 tracks: a landscape both dystopian and utopian simultaneously, a shining spot in a bleak wilderness where emotion and connectivity can be found. Through the shining opening of the ABBA-esque title track, you’d be forgiven for thinking Love City was a real place where the band had taken a pitstop to refuel themselves after Combat Sports. But there’s not a note, no morsel of this album that isn’t filled with giddy energy.

‘Headphones Baby’, the lead single, is drenched in cheesy melodrama (“I wanna die together like we’re movie stars” Young sings with no hint of irony), but that was always the intention. Young’s songs have always had a knowing glint towards a fourth wall, and that’s what makes them so enjoyable. Live favourite ‘Jump Off The Top’ is a sample-laden surf rock anthem that takes its cues from the rock ‘n’ roll icons of history, whilst gazing towards the future. It’s this sense of adventure that makes Back In Love City such a memorable listen, and you wonder what other bands reside in Love City if the calibre is this good so far.

In a way, the glossy radio pop of ‘Headphones Baby’ was a red herring of a lead single, as Back In Love City is arguably the heaviest Vaccines album to date. Lead guitarist Freddie Cowan turns it up to 12 with the gargantuan riffs of ‘Wanderlust’, ‘Bandit’ and ‘Peoples Republic of Desire’, whilst ‘XCT’ climbs intense highs not yet seen before in the bands career. “There’s a rumour going round that I’m empty” Young screams in the chorus, with acronyms aplenty in the lyrics. ‘Savage’ is exactly that: a twisted and contorted glam rock spectacle. Elsewhere, ‘Paranormal Romance’ is a blast of Spaghetti Western euphoria, and ‘Alone Star’ combines a classic Vaccines chorus (the song has existed in rough forms since 2015’s English Graffiti) with inspired mariachi guitars. If there’s a case for The Vaccines sounding stale in 2021, Back In Love City joyously takes a flamethrower to the argument, as there is a cornucopia of sounds making up this mosaic. 

As with previous releases, the happiness comes with a bittersweet undercurrent, as the gentle and beautiful single ‘El Paso’ comes to prove. “How can you say that we’re okay, baby?” Young croons over a nylon guitar accompaniament and trotting percussion, a sunset ballad if there ever was one. ‘Heart Land’ is a heartfelt ode to America that is impossible not to smile at; the lyrics are deliberately written from a youthful and optimistic, albeit naïve lens, as the narrator’s love for the country is illustrated entirely through pop culture imagery (“Favourite bands and Spider-Man, America”). And closer ‘Pink Water Pistols’ wraps this visit to Love City up in a poignant fashion; if you’re not buying a return ticket immediately for this metropolitan canvas of energy, you need to rethink your priorities.

Back In Love City is out now.

More about: The Vaccines